Saturday, January 22, 2011

[Characters] Bishop Carr - First D&D Cleric

The first Cleric in the history of D&D was played by original Blackmoor player and former TSR Editor Mike Carr and the character was later known simply as Bishop Carr. Mike Carr was not the only player to have used this class. Another famous example is Richard Snider, when he played Brother Richard - the Flying Monk. When I talked to Carr last year, he explained that:

Mike Mornard was another player in Arneson's campaign at this time. Mornard is also unique in the fact that he is the only player to have played in all three of Gary Gygax', Phil Barker's and Dave Arneson's original campaigns. Mornard recalls the origins of the Cleric class designed for Carr's character:

The Vampire Lord, Sir Fang, that Mornard refers to here was actually David Fant's character, who used to be the Baron of Blackmoor. How Baron Fant was turned into a Vampire is a shrouded mystery. The Last Fantasy Campaign suggests that Ran may have been responsible for turning Blackmoor's Baron into an undead lord. My fellow Blackmoor scholar David Ross speculates that it must have happened in the year 998 when the heroes drew the forces of the Egg out of Blackmoor, reclaiming their city:

"Meanwhile, a strong fighter becomes the vampire Sir Fang. This is also the last mention of Fant as a ruling Baron of Blackmoor. Great Vampire Hunt in which Fant is “killed”, but later two dwarves free him and join his undead legion."(-Blackmoor Gazetteer)

Lord Fang was also recruited the Baron's ally, Sir Jenkins, Lord of Glendover, to the ranks of the undead. The appearance of a Vampire lord and an undead legion on the side of evil threatened the balance of the campaign. Mike Mornard recalls how the Cleric class was designed to reestablish this balanace:

Bishop Carr is described in a humorous way in the First Fantasy Campaign, a description which still makes me chuckle today. Dave Arneson's accounts of the Bishop suggests Arneson's fond memories of playing with Carr. While the character was still of very low level when Carr played in the campaign, Arneson promoted him to Bishop of Blackmoor. In DA1, Garamond Bolitho is the Bishop of Blackmoor. Garamond may have succeeded Bishop Carr since DA1 is set 30 years after the First Fantasy Campaign, or they may be one and the same character. David Ross points to both Clerics' friendliness towards the "pagan" elves as a possible indication that they may be the same, but also offers the years 1002-1005 as the period when Bolitho may have replaced Carr as the preceeding Bishop over Blackmoor.

@DHBoggs: Thank you! I agree that Garamond was probably Ritchie's invention. He probably wanted to avoid using too many real world names for the characters, and with the 30 years passing between the FFC and DA1, it doesnt seem unlikely that the Bishop had retired or died of old age. The Wizard of the Woods gets a similar treatment, with Sildonis taking over that post.

Hi Matthew, thanks for taking time to comment on this! :) I assume you are talking about this thread from RPG.net where Mike Mornard was talking about the origins of the Mace as the Cleric's favored weapon. Although the Bishop mentioned seems to be Odo of Deuil?

Yeah, if you read a bit further you will see me correcting myself in that thread! Odo of Deuil was of course the author of an account of the second crusade, and I had him on the brain when I asked Mike about it. We were both talking about Odo of Bayeux, which is to say the half-brother of William the Conqueror.

I ran into Mike Carr at Gary Con in March 2013 and attempted to verify the "Origin of the Cleric" story. He said he wasn't around for the creation of the class. I actually heard the story from William Crolley, another of Dave's original players. Mike Carr did say that the origin story sounded entirely plausible, however.